(Newser)
–
During the last few months of her life, Marjorie Jackson became wary of keeping her inherited fortune in the bank, so she withdrew $8.6 million and stashed it in garbage bags, drawers, and toolboxes all over her Indianapolis home, the Indianapolis Star reports. And she may have had even more squirreled away around the house, possibly up to $15 million altogether, per an attorney who was a deputy prosecutor at the time. But when the heiress was murdered in 1977, her killers took only about $3 million of it ($1.7 million of it was found buried in the Arizona desert) and about $5 million was recovered at the home, leading to the question: Is more of Jackson's money still out there? An 81-year-old reporter who's been nominated for two Pulitzers thinks maybe, that an FBI agent assigned to the case may have lifted it, and that the FBI may have covered the whole thing up to save its reputation.

The story is a fascinating one with plenty of curiosities, the Star reports. One is Jackson herself, a recluse who left a place setting for Jesus in her dining room and gifts scattered around her home labeled "To God from Marjorie." The two convicted of killing her were an odd couple, too, with one described by the ex-prosecutor as a "hip, inner-city black," the other an "ignorant hillbilly." But reporter Don Devereux is most intrigued by the info he uncovered while digging into the case, including financial and property files he obtained from the FBI that suggest a now-deceased agent may have skimmed some of the cash from the desert dig (or from another location harboring more money), funneled it into a Swiss bank account, and then used it years later to buy real estate. "I'm not accusing the FBI agent of anything, but it sounds like there could be something to it," Jackson's 69-year-old nephew tells the Star. (Read about the puzzling case here.)